This invention relates generally to sampling lubricant, and more specifically, for example, to methods and apparatus for sampling lubricant from a gas turbine engine.
At least some known gas turbine engine lubrication pumps scavenge oil from separate sumps and re-merge the oil before returning it to a reservoir. Each of the separate sumps may include its own filter, such as a screen and/or magnet. However, at least some of such known filters may be inefficient. Accordingly, at least some known gas turbine engines include another scavenge filter that filters lubricant after it has been merged from the separate sumps. It may sometimes be desirable to sample lubricant from the engine to investigate any problems in the engine. However, because the lubricant may not be filtered by the scavenge filter until after being merged, it may be difficult to determine a source of any contamination and/or debris in the engine, such as abrasive contamination, magnetic debris, and/or non-magnetic debris. At least some known gas turbine engines are investigated by disconnecting lubricant lines from the lubrication pump and/or the lubrication reservoir and re-routing the lubricant to an external filtering and/or sampling device. However, such an investigation method may be time consuming and inefficient, which may increase a cycle time and/or cost of maintaining the gas turbine engine. Moreover, because the lubricant lines must be disconnected and thereafter reconnected after investigation, such investigation methods may facilitate causing lubricant to leak from such connections during operation of the engine.